June 28th, 2008

MGG 002 Technology: Productive or Destructive?

Listen to this episode of Moms Gone Geek.

How does technology fit into your home?

We discussed this article from SheGeeks.net

Naomi uses tech to keep herself and her two busy teenage girls organized and in touch at all times. Naomi’s second brain of choice is a BlackBerry. Texting is their main form of communication when they’re apart. At the time of this recording, Naomi’s girls are in to JamGlue, Millsberry and Meez for their social networking.

Melissa says, [technology] “…it wouldn’t be our home without it.” Melissa and her husband use Apple’s iCal and their iPods to keep their marriage healthy by syncing calendar entries so the bills get paid on time. iPods go beep in the night at their house.

Tip
Set up an email account for your baby while they are little. You and other family members can write letters to the child and then when s/he is old enough to read, it will be a fun activity for him/her. Use simple language, large formatted text and pictures. (Most email programs now and later will support formatting.) Think about writing for the future. It’s a great way for extended family members to be an active and positive part of your baby’s life now and later. Make digital keep-sakes by emailing them your favorite poem or tell them about a favorite book you read when you were their age. Gmail and Yahoo! are both free email services with customizable landing page interfaces.

Melissa reviews AlphaBaby.

Liana uses Brightkite to keep in touch with her mom. (She’s such a good girl.)

Is there such a thing as Internet addiction?

At home and at school, parents and caregivers should strive to keep a healthy balance between screen time and other activities that focus on playing outside or board games with the rest of the family. Choose tech games that promote activity like the Wii. Climb REAL trees! Or make a Wii game that simulates it and let Liana beta test it for you.

Are gadgets making us dumber?

The Moms agree technology isn’t making us dumber – we’re more resourceful and need to adapt. We discussed this article from Crunchgear.com. Do you remember the Dewey Decimal System?

How do you balance old-school with new-school to meet your information needs?

Convenience of technology tools enables us to save time so we have more time for other things. Naomi recommends FeedJournal, an app that prints out your favorite RSS  feeds (like Moms Gone Geek) to simulate a newspaper.

Picks of the Week

My Kid’s Registry.com

Ecamm’s Huckleberry

The Muppet Movie

Happy 1st Birthday to the iPhone!

Tip
Store your gadgets in plastic food storage containers (preferably without food in them) to keep them safe or from getting crushed or lost. Special shout out to all our Moms Gone Geek Beta testers! Thank you for bearing with our technical difficulties while we take our first steps!


June 23rd, 2008

MGG 001 Momma's Got A Brand New Bag

In this, our very first episode, we talk about who we are, what we do and how we manage to find the time to do it all on top of doing this podcast and all our other projects. (We make it up as we go along!) We talk tech: what kind of hardware we use, what services we like, who we like to hang out with and, most importantly, what kind of bags we carry all our gear in.

Members of Moms Gone Geek are:

Liana Lehua, the über-geeky auntie, a.k.a. fittorrent

Melissa Davis, mom to pint-sized toddler geek, a.k.a TheMacMommy

Naomi, (formerly known as GeekCyberMom) mom to two teen gadget girls – now a.k.a DigitalFanGirl Naomi is also host of Tales of a Single Parent.com.

Let’s Get a Handle on It

Melissa likes her Wenger backpack – a portable “office” on the go for the traveling IT Consultant. She also recommends George diaper bags to tote your precious cargo – oh, and the baby stuff too!

Liana loves her some Jill-e bags.

Naomi needs more bag recommendations!

Gadget Picks

Melissa puts the Nikon Cool Pix through its paces.

Naomi rocks the Xacti.

Get In Touch

Delicious is an awesome public bookmark sharing service. If you want to share a link with us, just tag it MGGideas and we’ll see it. We’d love to give you a shout out! Tell us what bag you like to tote your gear around in. Price ranges and links are super helpful not just to us, but other subscribers to the show.

It was so awesome to meet Pat Fauquet! What an amazing experience for Naomi and Melissa.

We would like to thank all of our “MomsGoneGeek Beta Testers” who hung out with us on the Friday afternoon before our first recording on TheMacMommy’s UStream Channel to test out what a live show might feel like. Thanks for all the live feedback on what was working and what wasn’t and for giving us ideas on what to do to make it better. We really appreciated that. We loved just goofing around together. Here is the pre-recorded video.


June 1st, 2008

Naomi's MacBook Pro Unboxing

Watch Naomi Unbox her MacBokPro

Check out Naomi on Whrrl http://whrrl.com/person/17098189


May 24th, 2008

Hello World!

Moms Gone Geek LogoWhat brings you to Mom’s Gone Geek? Are you a mom interested in tips while raising a child in this digital age? Do you want to learn what child-safe techonlogies you can use with your family? You’ve come to the right place.
Welcome to Moms Gone Geek.

Moms Gone Geek is an audio podcast on technology from a mom’s perspective. The Moms Gone Geek co-hosts share their diverse views and experiences on the latest consumer business technologies to infiltrate their respective homes and lives. The moms offer useful tips and tricks for getting the most from technology for the benefit of families and children alike.

Our goal is to help parents put technology into perspective by sharing tips and advice while addressing the need to reach out to other geek and non-geek parents that form our communities. We’ll share our Parental Unit advice for Aunts, Uncles and other family members and caregivers who we value and are so important in our children’s lives.